


Contract

by willow redfern (persephone20)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Angel ep: 'Orpheus', Buffy ep: 'Innocence', Buffy ep: 'Lies My Parents Told Me', Buffy ep: 'Pangs', Buffy ep: 'Passion', F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-08
Updated: 2012-03-07
Packaged: 2017-11-01 15:20:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/358323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephone20/pseuds/willow%20redfern
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The three times Angelus wanted to 'liberate' Willow, and the one time Willow succeeded.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a series of drabbles I wrote on livejournal under the name back_in_town.
> 
>   
> [ ](http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/persephone_20/Back%20In%20Town/?action=view&current=mWA14.jpg)  
> 

Even as he felt his soul slipping away, the soul cried for Buffy, but the demon cried for the witch. She was the one with the power in this town, even if she didn't know it yet. The coming days would provide a new beginning for them both. 

The blonde smoker walked up to him the moment before he pulled himself together. 'Hey. You okay? You want me to call 911?'

 

As he stood in the middle of the Sunnydale high school hallway, near the door, he felt almost sure that Willow would recognise him immediately for what he was. 

'What is it, Angel?'

'It's amazing.'

When Willow began to walk trustingly towards him, he fought to keep the anticipation from his features. He'd thought that he recognition would be the best thing. But her innocence was like a drug, mixing alluringly with the power he could feel simmering beneath the surface. Before the teacher or the boy could return here, Angelus swept the witch away out of the high school. 

'Angel?' she asked, in tremulous tones before her breath was stolen away by the speed at which they moved. Angelus breathed her right in.

'Your fear is intoxicating, Will.' He found a place where they could rest for Willow's benefit, but not for too long. Buffy would try to find them before too long. Excitement was in his tone as he moved closer to the young redhead, until Angelus had her backed up against a tree. He lifted his arms to either side of her head to keep her there. Her eyes showed white all the way around; white that glowed in the dark, and beckoned him to taste her.

'My... my fear?' Willow asked, trying to overcome her stutter. She swallowed the lump that was silently choking the back of her throat. 'I-I'm not afraid of you, Angel. I know you.'

'You will,' Angelus growled at her, moving his face into the light where she could see it was not the human guise that he was currently wearing. 

Willow stifled a gasp. Her body struggled for a second in instinct before Willow calmed it, valiantly trying to convince herself that this was some kind of test of trust Angel was putting her through. 'Angel, what...?'

'I promised you something amazing,' Angelus told her, his demon face smiling down upon her soft, human features. 'Let it never be said that Angelus reneges on a promise.' Gently, almost reverently, Angelus leaned forward and licked the warm skin at her neck.

Angelus! Willow thought panicked, the knowledge and understanding of why he was acting this way slamming into her too late. He had called himself Angelus! 

Then her eyes flickered. She'd never had a boy do what Angelus was doing to her with his tongue. Her heart hitched. With what she'd walked on between Xander and Cordelia ten minutes before--an hour ago, a lifetime ago--it was easy to allow herself to be swayed by the seductive touch of another.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  [ ](http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/persephone_20/Back%20In%20Town/?action=view&current=mWA14.jpg)   
> 

It was before he set the computer alight, before he chased the teacher down school corridors that eventually led to her death, that he went into Willow's bedroom. Innocent like her, the bedroom had hardly changed since the first time he'd been in here. Pretty, flowered sheets covered the bed in the center of the room, matching equally floral curtains. The only thing different was the aquarium on the right side of the room.

Angelus eased the patio doors open, smirking as he remembered Willow's ascertion that she wasn't allowed to have boys in her room, and the fact that she'd offered him an invitation anyway.

 

'I'm sure he will. He's like book-man. Until then, try and keep happy thoughts and...' 

Angelus lifted his head, his form a shadow in the corner of her pastel room. He watched as emotions fluttered over her transparent face, and she worked her jaw a few times, trying to make herself speak past the sudden shock. 

'Willow?' He heard Buffy's questioning voice on the other side of the phone line, and stepped forward. Immediately, Willow pressed the hang up button on the cordless, and threw it onto her bed. He watched her chest heave, and the pulse in her neck was more evidence of her swiftly beating heart.

'Why Willow, someone would almost think you were't pleased to see me,' Angelus drawled, stepping closer to her.

'N-no, not happy...' Willow shook her head, trying to make her brain work again. 'I mean, not unhappy!' 

Angelus tapped a finger slowly against the skin of his cheek. 'Which is it, Will? Happy, or unhappy?'

Willow's eyes darted to the open patio doors in her room. They hadn't had time yet to revoke the invitation he had to her room. Now, maybe, they wouldn't need to. Willow swallowed. Angelus backed her further against a wall.

He leaned in real close, so that Willow couldn't help but be aware of the breath he did not have. His lips hovered right above her ear. 

'Willow,' he whispered, 'you know you don't have to be scared just to please me...'

Willow's breath hitched as one of Angelus' oh-so-cold hands reached under the elastic of her pajama pants, and she could feel his fingertips press against her slender hip bone.

'Oh no... don't...' Willow breathed, squirming.

'Don't?' Angelus questioned softly with no real aim towards slowing down. 'But you seem so ready for it.'

'I was...' Willow shook her head in front of him, sending red hair flying. 'But I'm not. I saw... with Xander and Cordelia... and now... it's not the same, I'm not..."

'You seem so ready for it,' Angelus reinstated simply, before taking her lips under his and possessing them.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  [ ](http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/persephone_20/Back%20In%20Town/?action=view&current=mWA14.jpg)   
> 

'Angel... evil! You're all evil again!'

Her words came out muffled against the pressure of Angel's hand over Willow's mouth. Flashbacks--not wholly unpleasant ones--rushed through her head as he pushed her against the wall to stop her from screaming out and alerting Buffy that he was back. Angel had seen enough already to know that Buffy had moved on from him. That was good. Angel had told her to, and the sharp pang of the demon inside him used that fact to insist that there was now nothing more stopping Angel and Willow from being together. With the first glimpses of the redheaded witch for the first time in several months, and Angel knew he'd been right to leave. He couldn't be around Willow, and not have her, not after that period of time of having Angelus holding the reins. 

'I'm not evil.' The words were said just as much to remind Angel of them as they were for Willow. She blinked darkened green eyes as Angel moved his hand slowly from her lips and took two careful steps away from her. 

'You just left,' she said, turning away from him. After the words left her mouth, she found she didn't want to talk about this with him after all. It was too hard. Everyone she loved left her. First Angel, then Oz... 'You just helped her take down the major and then... I never even got to say goodbye.' Not to mention the full year before that watching Angel and Buffy pulling moon eyes at one another. But Willow wasn't going to go into that.

'I had to go.' Angel's face looked raw as he said it, but he kept his distance from her this time. He could still feel the pressure of her lips against the hand he'd placed up against them. He did his best to ignore the distracting sensation.

'No! You didn't have to,' Willow argued passionately. 'Everyone has a choice, Angel. _You_ had a choice!'

'Like you had a choice to reinsoul me?' That caused Willow to stop her emotional tirade, but Angel couldn't find it within himself to be thankful for it. 'If you wanted the monster, why did you restore the soul?'

Willow's eyelids fluttered shut, but not so fast that Angel missed the tell-tale signs of budding tears. 'Buffy,' she whispered. It was always Buffy. Her anger ended abruptly, leaving her unable to meet his eyes. 'He was hurting Buffy.' And not in a way that she'd liked, Willow bit back almost painfully.

'He was hurting Buffy,' Angel repeated. The four words that meant he and Willow could never be together. Not the way they wanted. His next words fell heavy like stones between them. 'And now something else is looking to hurt Buffy. That's why I'm here. I have to help her.'

She nodded to say that she understood. He hadn't come back for her. He would never come back for her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  [ ](http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y40/persephone_20/Back%20In%20Town/?action=view&current=mWA14.jpg)   
> 

Willow headed into the headquarters of Angel Investigations

'Hi Willow!' Fred greeted Willow, but Willow walked straight past her, to where Wesley was talking to Conner about magic.

'Where's Angelus?' she asked them frankly.

'Downstairs, in the basement,' Wesley answered, then worry furrowed his brow. 'You're not going to go down there, are you?'

'Yeah, I am,' Willow said, as though that was completely obvious. 'Not planning on hiding from the problem at such close quarters.' 

Without waiting for a reply, Willow turned steadily in the direction of the basement she'd been pointed towards. She wasn't a child anymore, not a sophomore at college. Behind her, she heard Fred saying quietly to Wesley, 'She has a fresh brain. I thought she might see some things we missed.' Truth was, Willow was glad for Fred's call. Willow hadn't needed it to sense what was going on up here, but it helped frame some sort of reason for her sudden appearance.

The door opened to the basement, and Willow made her way down those stairs. In his cage, Angelus lifted his head at the scent of something familiar.

'Surprised to see me?' Willow asked. She crossed her arms, standing away from the cage. He'd never seen her this way, tight black pants clinging to her hips, the low cut of her top hinting at the ways she'd developed in the last three years. In response, Angelus moved to stand upright, close to the bars of his cage, shifting in what looked like one solid movement

'Willow... Actually, yeah. Not the face I expected to see. What brings you to good ol' L.A?' Angelus asked. He wouldn't make anything of the fact she had travelled the distance. Not unless she said something first. No doubt the good guys at Angel Investigations and been so kind as to appraise her of the situation back here.

'You, actually,' Willow said. She breaks eye contact with him for the first time since stepping into the basement, glancing around to see if a key to his cage had been left around in the room somewhere. Of course not. No matter, she could magic the door open if need be. 'You're what brings me to take time out of the apocalypse.'

'What, another one of those?' Angelus drawled, leaning against the bars. 'I'm flattered.'

Willow shot him a glance. 'I'll bet you are.' The bolts keeping his cage locked fell away. Not soundlessly, but not loud enough to have Wesley and Gunn crashing their way down here. Angelus stared at it in surprise. Willow smiled when he didn't move, then said, 'I must admit, I thought you'd be quicker out of that cage once it was unlocked.'

Angelus didn't need to be told twice. In one movement, the door to the cage was swung aside, and Willow was taken into Angelus' arms once more. After a moment, or eternity, had passed, Angelus lifted his head to say, 'You taste different.'

Willow gazed up at him, the world of her experiences staring back at him through black-tinged eyes. 'I've tried to destroy the world too, you know. Tends to leave a mark.'


End file.
